That’s one small step for conviction; one giant leap for convenience

The other day I interviewed the former Heritage Malta CEO, Luciano Mule Stagno, for Reporter. Mule Stagno - who worked side-by-side with the very affable and easy-going chairman of Lombard bank, Heritage Malta and so many other things, the one and only Joe Said - said we should hold our breath before we pass any negative comments on the monstrosity (my words) that is being erected instead Valletta City Gate.

If City Gate is not an example of unbridled ugliness, MEPA should really have no problem with waving a green flag to all the applications in the urban conservation zones.

Sometimes I wonder what rules guide MEPA; whether it's ones based on convenience, conviction or simply circumstance.

I beg to differ with Mule Stagno's comment, though any commentary is practically useless in this country. Nonetheless, it would be appropriate to overemphasise Renzo Piano's great genius in convincing someone like Austin Gatt to accept such a breath-taking investment in modernity, constructed around an architectural appreciation that only people with the cultural appreciation and depth of Austin Gatt will grasp.

It has now dawned on me why the Italian architect - who has left his hideous architecture the world over - had such intuition.

It is great intuition to appreciate that a theatre without a roof was originally planned for the Maltese parliament and the parliament building with a roof for the theatre.

Yes, it is secret, but it is true. 

The number of people interested in theatre does not really exceed more than 65 people in this country - and this includes all the playwrights and actors. 

Indeed, these could easily seat themselves within what is to be the parliament and the parliamentarians.

Well, the parliamentarians should find no problem in transferring parliament to the roofless theatre.

I am sure that they will find no problem with a roofless meeting room. Most of the time they are never in parliament - most of the time they are more concerned with their private professions - and most of the time the Prime Minister is seeking to make parliamentary debate redundant by postponing debate and voting.

Indeed I ask myself whether the PM does in fact believe in parliamentary democracy?

He has just decided on a four-week recess.

What a bloody shame.

Instead of parliamentary debate, he will be campaigning like a mad man. As most of the country worries about the election date, the PM continues to ponder what to do next.

If indecisiveness was a trait, then surely it is in the PM's DNA.

Simply because he does not have the proverbial balls to face a parliamentary debate or a vote, he procrastinates.  In other words we have a Prime Minister who could very well be just a monarch, without a court or even advisors.

The only thing I can really see around the PM are court jesters, an endless retinue of them.

It is bad enough we have a country which operates like a boat on auto-pilot with no skipper, but to have a country that cannot even legislate because the Prime Minister is too petrified to lose out on the inauguration of the new theatre-cum-parliament or the parliament-cum-theatre is, frankly, ridiculous. 

Renzo Piano probably wishes to be remembered as someone of the same grandeur as Baron Haussmann, the 'architect' behind the renovation of Paris.

He is not. He is an architect who is both liked and disliked, and I happen to subscribe to the latter category. I find his architecture revolting and presumptuous, the opposite of utilitarian and a waste of public and private money.

Gonzi reminds of someone who wishes to be Napoleon III, and like Napoleon who chose Haussmann to modernise Paris, he chose Renzo to scar Valletta forever.

Napoleon had a dream and a special interest in being remembered in the history books.

But Haussman left France with a capital that will live on.

I am sure he will be remembered, as someone who defined a modern city and one that was more than practical but simply beautiful.

If there is something that ruins that feeling of consistency, it is the Centre Pompidou, realised by the one and only Renzo Piano.

Gonzi thinks that he will be remembered for the City Gate project. No, he will not: he will be remembered for being the most indecisive of all prime ministers, and as someone who evolved the essence of disloyalty to the leader as an art form.

Never in the history of the Nationalist Party has disloyalty worked in such wondrous ways. Perhaps former Health Minister Louis Deguara's outburst in The Times is the latest example of disloyalty at its best.

But disloyalty comes out of a sickness within.

Not with the Deguaras of this world, but rather with those who hijacked a party, made it theirs and from a party of conviction converted into a party of convenience.

There is not one sector in the Nationalist party which is not sick and tired of the present leadership.

But the theatre cum parliament at the opening of Valletta's is not only a sad tribute and a shameless waste of money and architecture but more importantly an investment in the destruction of Valletta's retail community.

Mintoff tried very hard to destroy Valletta by moving the then popular and Arabesque 'suq' in Merchant's Street and by imposing licensing hurdles to many retail outlets.

Things were changing for the better, until another Mintoffian came to the scene.  It was Austin Gatt who made parking in Valletta a mission impossible, which was exacerbated by the introduction of CVA, the destruction of the road over City Gate, the plague of the wardens and more importantly, the complete chaos and elimination of the Valletta Bus terminus - which all contributed to the serious demise of retail in Valletta.

But the other day in Valletta - just in front of the Law Courts - I watched Austin Gatt walk his John Wayne stroll. His mannerism was loud and clear: I could give a flying f*** what anyone thinks or feels.

It was strange to see him. A few minutes earlier in court, his lawyer said that Dr Gatt could not attend due to urgent business. 

Well, all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

***

Now, 84-year-old Albert Mizzi has said (and I quote): "For me politicians, at least many of them, are the most dishonest people in this world."

Well, I would say that I agree with him.

But looking back at Mr Mizzi's illustrious life, I wonder why he was so close to politicians.

Needless to say, he was close to Mintoff and later, to Fenech Adami.

Good for him.

But Mr Mizzi, I suspect, is rather irked at the way he has been treated by MEPA over Manoel Island. He does not like it if he does not get his way.

Well, just imagine if I said the same thing, but instead of politicians I substituted the word with 'mega businessmen'.

Knowing Mr Mizzi, he would surely institute legal proceedings against this newspaper and my good self.

Well, once again: I leave it to our readers to judge Mr Mizzi's comments.

***

The Nationalist Party have decided to recognise  - well, at least in principle - 'gay partnership'.

Well, you may say that this is good news.

Yet, the real argument here is not whether it is good or bad, but rather why the Nationalist party decided to take this stand.

Political convenience, or political conviction?

Last May, we were treated to endless diatribes by the Prime Minister on his conviction about the family and his strong opposition to the introduction of divorce.

It was, you could say, a feather in his cap that he stood his ground.

Well, it seems that the time for principles is over.

Mr Prime Minister has finally realised that politics is all about compromise and selling your soul.

I guess this would be one of the occasions when Albert Mizzi's 'dishonest' claim would definitely stand ground.

If there is dishonesty in the claim by Chris Said that the PN will recognise gay partnership it is to be found in the very fact that it comes too close after the declaration by the Labour Party that it too was for the same thing.

And more importantly, when everyone is expecting an election in the very near future.

The Religio et Patria hanging precariously under the PN emblem must be feeling very uneasy and uncomfortable.

Those veteran Nationalists who embraced conservatism and accepted modernity with certain reservations must be having some serious murmurs and other pathological disorders with their heart.

Perhaps there is something which we are not seeing and not understanding. 

Perhaps the greatness of Lawrence Gonzi and his great vision and inconsistency is beyond us.  Perhaps we need to accept the fact that this is in fact beyond us, and like good citizens we should leave the fate of our country to these good men and women who never take decisions based on electoral consideration, but as Lawrence Gonzi always said, in the best interest of this country.